It is well known to provide a temperature-controlled display device (e.g., a refrigerator, freezer, refrigerated merchandiser, refrigerated display case, etc.) that may be used in commercial, institutional, and residential applications for storing or displaying refrigerated or frozen objects. For example, it is known to provide service type refrigerated display cases for displaying fresh food products (e.g., beef, pork, poultry, fish, etc.) in a supermarket or other commercial setting.
Such refrigerated cases typically include cooling elements (e.g. cooling coils, heat exchangers, evaporators, etc.) that receive a coolant (e.g. a liquid such as a glycol-water mixture, a refrigerant, etc.) from a condensing system (e.g., condensing unit, heat transfer device, heat exchanger, condenser, etc.) during a cooling mode or operation to provide cooling to the temperature-controlled space. For instance, the coolant at the cooling element may absorb heat from the air surrounding the cooling element, chilling the surrounding air, and one or more fans may be used to direct the chilled air into the temperature-controlled space.
Often, the temperature-controlled display device may require more than one cooling element in order to cool a temperature-controlled space. For instance, regulations may exist that restrict the use of a particular refrigerant type used in a single cooling element and condensing unit loop. In these instances, it would be advantageous to provide a plurality of modular heat exchange systems in a temperature-controlled display device having a common air supply plenum and one or more fans to provide a common air supply to all modular heat exchange systems, where each modular heat exchange system has a condensing unit supplying coolant to a cooling element.
This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.